heat at them.
The corona of the sun gleamed and writhed like a thin band of quicksilver.

"We're going in there," Ato decided. "It's the quickest way."

Warnings were sounded all through the ship. The screens were turned off
now, as no eye could have survived the sight of that flaming ball which
was rushing toward them at such extraordinary speed.

The ship groaned as it hit the corona. Vast whirlwinds of flame shook it.
The motors coughed and spat. Then the gyroscopes took over. It steadied
itself and went through. Like a moth fluttering through a candle-flame,
The Nebula drew away from the star. But this moth was unharmed--and a
million cells had drunk so much energy that the ship reeled with its power.

* * * * *

On and on. In zig-zag pursuit of Grim Hagen, they crashed through
Trans-Space. The dust-cloud loomed larger now upon their screens. It
was still no larger than a baseball, though it must have been millions
of miles across.

Three times they had to sweep from their course to renew their energy
from straggling suns that seemed to be farther and farther apart. The
first was a tiny blue sun that burned its way through the emptiness.
The second was a huge nebula that pulsed and spouted flame and protean
worlds into space--enveloped them again as it breathed, scared them, and
cast them out once more. And Odin wondered if in such a furnace and such
torment his own world had been born. He had now seen as much of space
as any man, with the exception of Grim Hagen, and so far it had been a
tumultuous creation that he had watched. Nothing was still. The forges
of space were white-hot. As they sped toward this sun, they passed two
planets, perilously close together, pelting each other with splashing
gobs and spears of flame and slag. The third was a red sun with lonely
burned-out planets circling wearily about it. As they skimmed above its
surface Odin slid a dark plate over the screen and watched. Here were
molten lakes of metal rimmed by red flames that looked like writhing
trees. The surface was splitting and bubbling. A mountain of molten
ooze swiftly grew to a height of thirty miles. Then it burst into red
flame from its own weight and came toppling down.

As they hurled away from the red star, Ato turned to Odin and Gunnar and
said: "I'm afraid that will be the last. Even the stars are behind us--"

The screens now showed nothing but the dust-cloud, with specks of light and